How to Attract Hummingbirds in Delaware: A Backyard Sanctuary Guide

Delaware may be the second-smallest state in the country, but don't let its size fool you — it sits squarely on one of the busiest hummingbird migration corridors on the East Coast. Every spring and summer, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds stop, feed, and nest in yards, parks, and wildlife refuges across the First State, making even a small backyard here a meaningful stopover on a much bigger journey.

Whether you're gardening in Wilmington, Dover, or along the coast near Rehoboth Beach, this guide will walk you through everything you need to turn your space into a Delaware hummingbird destination: who's around and when, how to size your setup to any space, feeder and nectar care, pest-safe cleaning, and the native plants and wildflower seed varieties that thrive in Delaware's climate.

The short version, if you're in a hurry:

To attract hummingbirds in Delaware, put up a leak-proof feeder filled with fresh, dye-free nectar by early April in Sussex County (mid-April elsewhere), keep it clean and refilled every 1–6 days depending on heat, skip the insecticide so hummingbirds can still hunt insects for protein, and plant native, nectar-rich flowers like columbine, red buckeye, and cardinal flower so your yard offers real food alongside the feeder.

• Species you'll see: Ruby-throated is Delaware's only breeder and dominates the state by an enormous margin; Rufous is a genuine, recurring winter visitor; Allen's, Black-chinned, and Calliope are documented rarities with 5 accepted records between them
• Best feeder type: leak-proof design with a comfort perch, like the AspenPerch® Hummingbird Feeder
• Best nectar: plain 4:1 water-to-sugar ratio, no red dye — or Pop's Nectar with added electrolytes and calcium
• Feeder timing: up by early April in Sussex County, mid-April elsewhere
• Nectar change frequency: every 1–2 days above 90°F, every 5–6 days below 70°F
• Pest control: no insecticide — use vinegar-water spray and HummGuard® nectar tips instead
• Top native plants: columbine, red buckeye, trumpet honeysuckle, cardinal flower, bee balm (varies by region — see below)
• Best wildflower planting window: October through November, for spring bloom timed to spring migration

Which Hummingbirds You'll See in Delaware

Delaware's documented list holds five species, and one bird accounts for nearly every sighting. Ruby-throated Hummingbird is Delaware's only breeder and the only hummingbird that breeds regularly anywhere east of the Mississippi River; statewide checklist activity peaks at 32% in the first week of September, and 49% around Wilmington — nearly one checklist in two. Rufous Hummingbird is a genuine, recurring winter visitor rather than a rare stray — the only western hummingbird on Delaware's official state list that the Bird Records Committee no longer even asks birders to document, with sightings peaking around Wilmington in early December. Allen's, Black-chinned, and Calliope Hummingbirds are documented review-species rarities with 5 accepted records between them, nearly all found between late October and February.

When Do Hummingbirds Arrive and Leave Delaware?

Delaware's season starts in the south. Sussex County (Rehoboth Beach) sees its first Ruby-throateds in mid-April, about a week ahead of Kent (Dover) and New Castle (Wilmington) counties, and the whole state peaks together in the first week of September before clearing out by mid-October.

Attracting Hummingbirds No Matter Your Space

You don't need acres of land to invite wonder into your yard. Hummingbirds are famously adaptable — all they're really looking for is a dependable food source, a safe place to perch, and a little color.

• Small patio or balcony: One feeder hung from a bracket or shepherd's hook, paired with a container of red or orange tubular blooms like scarlet sage, is plenty to get noticed. Hummingbirds are solitary feeders by nature, so a single feeder works great in tight spaces. For the full setup, see our guide to the best hummingbird products for a small patio or balcony.
• Average backyard: Add a mix of feeders and native blooms along a fence line or garden bed, and give your visitors a swing or two nearby to rest and survey their territory between sips.
• Large yard with trees: Take advantage of the shade. Hummingbirds prefer feeders and plantings tucked out of harsh, direct afternoon sun, with a nearby branch to perch on and watch for rivals. Spread multiple feeders far apart, since hummingbirds are territorial and will happily chase each other off a single feeder — a real consideration in winter, when a single Rufous will guard a feeder and a nearby swing as its own.

Choose a Leak-Proof Feeder

A feeder is only as good as what's in it — and how well it's kept. Pop's AspenPerch® Hummingbird Feeder is leak-proof by design and paired with our patented Polyperch® comfort perch, so your hummingbirds can rest and feed at the same time instead of hovering the whole meal.

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AspenPerch® Hummingbird Feeder, 8 oz

Leak-proof by design, with a patented Polyperch® comfort perch built in — so your hummingbirds can rest and feed at the same time instead of hovering through the whole meal. You get to see their tongue in action versus their back!

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Keep Feeders Clean with Fresh Nectar

Skip the Red Dye

Your feeder's color does the attracting; dyed nectar offers no benefit and can be harmful to a hummingbird's health.

Use a Real Nectar Recipe

Use a 4:1 plain sugar-water ratio to make your hummingbird nectar and read our full recipe guide to get your batch right. You can also use our nectar mixing calculator for any unit of choice to get the full breakdown on sugar to water ratio. Or skip the math with the ready-to-use option below.

Just getting your first feeder going? Nectarade® Ready to Use Liquid comes pre-mixed and ready to pour — no measuring, no mixing, nothing to commit to before you know how much traffic you'll get.

Shop the Ready to Use Nectar →

Only Fill Enough to Change Often

An 8 oz feeder rarely needs to be topped all the way off — overfilling just means more nectar sitting around long enough to spoil.

How Often to Change Nectar in Delaware

Sugar water ferments faster the hotter it gets. Use this as your rule of thumb:

If the nectar ever looks cloudy before that window is up, change it early — cloudiness means it's already started to ferment.

Keeping Feeders Pest-Free Without Insecticide

Hummingbirds don't live on nectar alone — small insects make up a big part of their protein diet, especially for feeding chicks. That means insect spray is off the table around your feeding station; it removes a food source hummingbirds depend on and can be harmful to them directly. Clean your feeder every time you change the nectar, using warm water and a bottle brush — no soap residue, no bleach. A little vinegar and water solution works great for breaking down sticky buildup or the beginnings of mold.

Ants

Deter ants with a vinegar-water spray around (not on) the feeder ports, or wipe down the hanging hook where ants tend to march down. Coating the wire or string hanging your feeder with a thin layer of mineral oil also keeps crawling insects from reaching the nectar.

Bees and Wasps

Bees and wasps are drawn to the same sugar water your hummingbirds are after.

HummGuard® Nectar Tips slide right onto the AspenPerch's feeding ports — the flexible membrane opens easily for a hummingbird's beak but closes tight against anything bigger, keeping your nectar exclusively for the birds it's meant for.

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Plant a Delaware Native Hummingbird Garden

Feeders are a wonderful supplement, but nothing beats real, native nectar. Native plants evolved right alongside Delaware's hummingbirds, so they bloom on the right schedule and produce exactly the nectar these birds are looking for.

Best native nectar plants for Delaware:

Pop's tip: Pairing an early bloomer like columbine or red buckeye with a late-season plant like cardinal flower gives your Delaware yard coverage from the very first spring arrivals through the last fall stragglers.

If You're Near the Border

Hummingbirds don't check a map before deciding where to feed, so if you're near a state line, your best guide might be a blend of both.

Near Maryland: Nearly identical Mid-Atlantic timing and native plant list. See our Maryland guide for more.

Near Pennsylvania: Southeastern Pennsylvania and Delaware share very similar spring arrival windows. See our Pennsylvania guide for more.

Near New Jersey: Coastal Delaware and South Jersey share similar sandy-soil growing conditions. See our New Jersey guide for more.

To make this easy, our Perfect Little Sanctuary® Wildflower Seed Blend is designed to bring nectar-rich color into your yard with minimal fuss.

When to Plant the Perfect Little Sanctuary® Blend in Delaware

Fall is the best planting window across Delaware — aim for October through November. This timing is based on the germination needs of the blend's own 12 varieties: 9 of the 12 either need or benefit from a cold, moist stratification period before they'll germinate well, including Purple Coneflower, Black-Eyed Susan, Perennial Lupine, and Lance-Leaved Coreopsis, and Delaware's winter cold does that work naturally. Early spring is a solid backup window if you miss fall.

Ready to plant? Perfect Little Sanctuary® Wildflower Seed Blend packs all 12 varieties into one packet — no separate shopping trips before Delaware's fall planting window.

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Top Performers in Delaware

The Perfect Little Sanctuary® blend contains 12 varieties, and Delaware's confirmed native ranges point to a strong, mostly-native lineup, consistent with the rest of the Mid-Atlantic:

• Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) — native and a long summer-to-fall bloomer
• Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) — native, reliable and low-maintenance
• Lance-Leaved Coreopsis (Coreopsis lanceolata) — native, drought tolerant once established
• White Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) — native, extremely low-maintenance once established
• Perennial Lupine (Lupinus perennis) — confirmed native to Delaware in official USDA distribution records
• Painted Daisy (Chrysanthemum carinatum) — not a Delaware native, but a dependable, heat-tolerant annual bloomer that rounds out the bloom season

Pop's tip: You don't need to do anything special to favor these — just sow the blend as directed. The rest of the mix still adds seasonal color, but these varieties are the ones that will do the heaviest lifting in a Delaware yard.

Give Them a Place to Rest

Hummingbirds spend a surprising amount of their day perched, not flying — watching their territory, digesting, and simply resting between feedings. A Pop's Original Hummingbird Swing hung near your feeder gives them exactly that spot, and it turns your feeding station into a front-row seat for watching them up close. Hang it about 1 foot from your feeder, at the same height (Pop's rule of thumb) — see our guide on where to hang your hummingbird swing for placement tips — and don't be surprised if a hummingbird claims it as their own personal lookout post.

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Original Series Hummingbird Swing, Onyx

Give hummingbirds a place to rest between sips, and turn your feeding station into a front-row seat for watching them up close.

Shop the Original Swing →

Keep Your Sanctuary Safe from Predators

A feeding station draws more than hummingbirds, and knowing what's actually worth worrying about — and what isn't — makes for a safer yard. Cats and window strikes are the two best-documented threats to hummingbirds around any home. See our full Hummingbird Predators guide for the complete picture. Praying mantis predation on hummingbirds is a real, documented phenomenon nationally, and the Chinese mantis — the species most often responsible — is present in the Mid-Atlantic; we were not able to confirm a Delaware-specific record before this guide's publication, so treat that risk as real but unconfirmed locally rather than either dismissed or overstated.

Summary: Key Takeaways for Attracting Hummingbirds in Delaware

Building a hummingbird-friendly yard doesn't take a green thumb or a big budget — just a little consistency and the right setup. Here's everything from this guide in one place:

• Ruby-throated Hummingbird is Delaware's only breeder and dominates the state, peaking at 32% of checklists statewide (49% around Wilmington) in the first week of September
• Rufous Hummingbird is a genuine, recurring winter visitor, arriving mid-November and peaking in early December, mostly around Wilmington; Allen's, Black-chinned, and Calliope are documented rarities with 5 accepted records between them
• Feeder timing: up by early April in Sussex County, mid-April elsewhere
• Any size space works — one feeder is plenty for a balcony; larger yards can support multiple feeders spaced apart, since hummingbirds are territorial
• Use a leak-proof feeder with a comfort perch, like the AspenPerch®, and fill it only as full as it'll be drunk in a few days
• Skip red dye in nectar; a plain 4:1 sugar-water ratio or Pop's Nectar (with electrolytes and calcium) both work
• Change nectar every 1–2 days above 90°F, up to every 5–6 days below 70°F
• Clean the feeder at every nectar change with warm water and vinegar — no soap or bleach
• Never use insecticide near feeders; hummingbirds rely on insects for protein. Use vinegar-water spray and HummGuard® nectar tips for pest control instead
• Add a hummingbird swing near the feeder to give hummingbirds a place to rest and be observed up close
• Cats and window strikes are the two best-documented threats to hummingbirds around any home
• Native, nectar-rich plants (columbine, red buckeye, trumpet honeysuckle, cardinal flower, bee balm) do more for hummingbirds long-term than feeders alone
• Sow wildflower seed in October through November for blooms timed to spring migration; Purple Coneflower, Black-Eyed Susan, Lance-Leaved Coreopsis, White Yarrow, and Perennial Lupine are the strongest Delaware performers in Pop's Perfect Little Sanctuary® blend

Get these basics in place, and the wonder takes care of itself.

This guide covers what's specific to Delaware — the species, the timing, the plants that belong here. For the fundamentals that apply anywhere, including water sources, shelter, and how the pieces work together, read our guide to building the ultimate hummingbird sanctuary.

Frequently Asked Questions

A few of the questions we hear most from fellow hummingbird lovers across Delaware:

When should I put my hummingbird feeder out in Delaware?

Early April in Sussex County, and mid-April in Kent and New Castle counties, ready for the first arrivals about a week or two later.

What are common mistakes when feeding hummingbirds in Delaware?

Assuming the season is over once Ruby-throateds leave in October — Delaware gets a second, genuine season, a regular winter Rufous Hummingbird mostly around Wilmington from mid-November into January. Taking the feeder down too early misses it. Assuming nectar lasts longer in cool weather than it really does is another; even in a mild Delaware winter, freezing nectar needs to be swapped, not just changed on schedule. And adding red dye, which does nothing — your feeder's own color does the attracting.

Do hummingbirds like feeders without perches?

They don't need one — hovering while feeding is their default — but they'll use a perch readily when it's there, resting between sips instead of burning energy the whole meal. That's the reasoning behind the AspenPerch's built-in Polyperch® comfort perch: it doesn't change whether hummingbirds visit, but it changes how long they stay once they do.

What happens if you don't boil sugar water for hummingbirds?

Nothing dangerous — boiling isn't strictly required. Its real purpose is helping sugar dissolve fully in cooler water and giving nectar a slightly longer shelf life before fermenting, not eliminating some hidden risk. Warm tap water dissolves sugar just as well.

Is it bad to leave my feeder up in fall?

Not at all — it's a myth that a feeder left up will delay migration. Hummingbirds migrate based on daylight and internal cues, not food availability, and a full feeder just helps them refuel for the journey ahead. In Delaware, it's genuinely worth leaving a feeder up through winter, since a Rufous Hummingbird is a real possibility from mid-November on.

What are the best plants to attract hummingbirds in Delaware?

Columbine, red buckeye, and trumpet honeysuckle perform well across the entire state, with cardinal flower and bee balm as strong supporting choices. Native, tubular, red or orange flowers are the general rule of thumb.

Delaware Hummingbird Resources

Audubon Chapters

Delaware is home to local Audubon chapters. Find the one closest to you with Audubon's Find Your Local Audubon tool.

If You Find an Injured or Grounded Hummingbird

Hummingbirds are protected under federal and Delaware state law, so only a licensed wildlife rehabilitator can legally care for one.

• Delaware Council of Wildlife Rehabilitators and Educators (DCWRE) — the state's main rehabilitator network, established in 1995
• Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research — a well-known, respected bird-specific rehabilitation and research organization; call 302-737-9543

Sources

• eBird bar chart data, Cornell Lab of Ornithology — Delaware statewide and by county, 2016–2025.
• Delaware Bird Records Committee, State List of Bird Species, Delaware Ornithological Society — source for every rare-species record count and status referenced on this page.

Why We Built This Guide

Pop's Birding has been helping hummingbird lovers for three generations. One of the questions our customers ask most often is "How do I actually attract more hummingbirds to my yard?" — we built this guide to give a direct, practical answer, not a generic one. Most feeder advice online treats a state as having one season that ends in fall, but Delaware genuinely has two: the familiar Ruby-throated summer, and a real, recurring winter season built around a single western species that the state's own records committee no longer treats as a rarity. A guide that stops advising once the Ruby-throateds leave would miss that second season entirely. We wanted a guide that accounts for Sussex County's real head start each spring and Wilmington's disproportionate share of both the summer peak and the winter Rufous — not one that happens to mention Delaware in the title.

How We Built This Guide

The feeder-timing figures here point back to our own eBird-based Delaware hummingbird calendar rather than re-deriving the analysis on this page — the actionable conclusion is Sussex County's early-April put-up date, mid-April elsewhere, and the real, recurring winter Rufous window from mid-November into January. This corrects an earlier version of this guide, which stated earliest migrants could arrive as early as March; the actual eBird-confirmed earliest arrival, even in Sussex County, is mid-April. The nectar-change schedule uses the same temperature bands as every state's guide, since fermentation speed is driven by heat rather than anything Delaware-specific. We checked whether praying mantis predation, a real documented risk nationally, has a confirmed record in Delaware specifically, and could not find one either way in the time available for this guide — stated here as an open question, not silently skipped or assumed either direction.